Playing a form of Bingo was first recorded in Italy in the year 1530. The people enjoyed a Lottery style game known as “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia”. The game was extremely popular from the start, evident by its continued appearance in Italian society. “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia” is still played every Saturday to this day.

France was introduced to the game in the late 1770’s. In those days, it was the aristocrats of society who had all the fun, which explains why only members of French Nobility took part. This form of Bingo was known to the French simply as “Le Lotto”.

Eventually, in 1929, a historical event occurred. A New York toy manufacturer by the name of Edwin S. Lowe made a trip to Atlanta, Georgia where a great carnival was to take place. Edwin Lowe attended the affair and while browsing the multitude of fantastic booths, tents and fanciful amusements, came across a large tent where the raucous crowd inside was evidently having a fabulous time.

Upon entering the tent, Lowe made a monumental discovery. There was a game being played with numbered cardboard cards and dried beans. Each card had a 5×5 diagram, with each box containing a number. A caller stood at the front, drawing random numbers from a cigar box and calling them out. Each card that contained the number would have it covered by a dry bean, giving the game its name, “Beano”.

The game continued on into the wee hours of the morning for the simple fact that its players did not wish to stop. Finally, the man running the game of Beano told everyone to go home. With some disappointment, the crowd dispersed, and Edwin Lowe went on his way.

Overwhelmed by the pure fascination players experienced during the Beano game, Edwin returned to his home in New York and began devising his own Beano game. He created several randomly numbered cards, with numbers ranging from 1 through 75. He then invited a group of friends to his home to try it out.

The experiment went off without a hitch as all of Lowe’s friends had the same fantastic experience playing Beano; so much so that one of them jumped up from his seat and accidentally exclaimed, “Bingo!” That slip of the tongue was as historic as Lowe’s stumbling upon the game itself, resulting in the title of the game we all know today – Bingo.

In order to market the game, Lowe knew he would need more materials. He called upon the expertise of Carl Leffler, a math professor at the University of Columbia. Leffler was asked to develop 6,000 Bingo cards, each with a different, non-repeating number pattern. Leffler completed the task in 1930. It is widely believed, though not proven, that Carl Leffler went insane immediately thereafter.

Edwin Lowe marketed the game as “Lowe’s Bingo” and found instant success. Other companies wishing to market their own game paid Lowe $1 per year to use the name, “Bingo”.

One last piece to the puzzle of the history of Bingo remains. How did it become so popular as a religious charity event? As you probably know, Bingo is played at thousands of church halls in North America, especially on Friday nights. Here’s how it happened…

A pastor in Pennsylvania was forced to hold his congregations in a dilapidated building because there were no extra funds to restore the church. He had the brilliant idea to hold Bingo games for his members to raise funds for the restoration. Phenomenal success caused a whirlwind effect that has grown to massive proportions over the years.

And that, our dear readers, is the history of Bingo

In the United Kingdom, Bingo is actually ranked as one of the most popular pastimes among adults. Bingo is played in literally hundreds of Bingo Clubs across the UK, not mention the hundreds of online Bingo sites actively favored by Europeans.

In the United States, Bingo has been an off-and-on fad game since it was discovered and marketed in 1929 by New York toy manufacturer, Edwin Lowe. Bingo is especially popular among church organizations, rated as the number one charitable fund-raising method in North America.

Below, you’ll find a list of other interesting Bingo Facts

1. The game of “Beano” (because it was played with dried beans) was discovered in 1929 by toy manufacturer Edwin Lowe while attending a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia.

2. Lowe renamed the game of Beano to “Bingo” when he invited his friends over to play the game (before production and marketing), and one accidentally exclaimed “Bingo!” upon winning.

3. The origins of Bingo actually date back to 1530 Italy, where it was played in its original form as a Lottery game known as “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia”.

4. Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia is still played every Saturday in Italy, and makes up a massive portion of the country’s revenue, estimated at $75 million per year.

5. 7.5% of the world’s population loves to play Bingo – 10% of all women and 5% of all men.

6. An estimated 30% of all Bingo fans are actually under the age of 35.

7. Bingo is North America’s number-one source of community fund-raising.

8. In 19th century Germany, Bingo became an educational tool used to help students learn math, science history and spelling.

9. A game called Human Bingo is often used in schools and social situations to help people get to know one another.

10. In North America, the most popular version of Bingo is 75-Ball Bingo.

11. In Europe and Australia, the most popular version of Bingo is 90-Ball Bingo.

12. An average Bingo game lasts from 3-6 minutes, with an additional average of 30 seconds to confirm a winning Bingo.

13. A professional Bingo Caller averages 23 numbers called every minute.

14. In 75-Ball Bingo, there are exactly 1,474,200 possible unique Bingo Card combinations.

15. In 90-Ball Bingo, there are about 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 possible unique Bingo Card combinations. Unless you’re a mathematician, you’ll probably need help saying that number: five hundred fifty-two septillion, four hundred forty-six sextillion, four hundred seventy-four quintillion, sixty-one quadrillion, one hundred twenty-eight trillion, six hundred forty-eight billion, six hundred one million, six hundred thousand.

16. Currently the most popular form of entertainment in the United Kingdom, more money is spent annually in UK bingo Clubs than on Baseball and Football events combined.

17. If your name is “Joe” or “Magaret”, you should be playing Bingo! Statistics show that males named Joe and females named Margaret win Bingo more often than person’s by any other name.

18. Food for thought –Bingo fans consume 10,000,000 tons of hot beverages, 4,000,000 pints of alcoholic beverages, 130,000 breakfast meals, 15,000 tons of chips, and enough jumbo sausages to stretch 47 miles, every year at UK Bingo Clubs alone.

Bingo fever is sweeping the nation and millions site doen in the comfort of their own homes, cuppa in hand, chocolates by their sides and chat away whilst playing a game that has gone from the live bingo halls of the Uk to the world wide web.

There are massive differeces to be seen between the new game phenomenon for example, there is no more shouting and swearing, players don’t expect to win but still experience the thrill, no skill is involved and it’s all much more relaxed and FUN!!

Bingo is now one of the biggest searched for things on the internet and the boom shows no signs of slowing down. TV shows such as Bingo Night Live on ITV which offers free bingo where you play along live on your pc have helped to increase the number of online bingo players.

The big sites such as Blackpool Club Bingo, Bet Fred Bingo and Wink Bingo have cottened on to the fact that there is a whole new online gaming market and offer huge cash bonuses and even better free bingo money to try out the advanced poker software.

So why the boom in online bingo?

It could be easily down to the simple fact that bingo halls in general have suffered recently and that is blamed for the UK smoking ban, the older generation of bingo players seemed to like nothing more than a few drinks a smoke and a good game of bingo in their local halls. All this changed when the ban on smoking was introduced and many now stay at home and play from the comfort of their own arm chairs.

So is Online Bingo Any good?

It’s awsome, bingo is an amazing fun filled game with no delays, it’s played quickly with rules everyone can understand. Most software gives you the chance to have your cards marked automatically or you can do it yourself. Many are making real friends as players chat away whilst playing and haveing a fantastic time.

Where should you play?